Alex Fraser grew up in Sydney, the only child of a wealthy family with a long established legal practice. Her father Charles, a prominent lawyer, and her mother, Hazel, live in Darling Point. She was expected to follow the family tradition and study law but she chose to study medicine instead. While at university in Sydney, she travelled to Ethiopia and the Sudan and witnessed firsthand the poverty and famine there. When she returned to Australia, she studied pediatrics and completed her internship. She met Terence while he was in Sydney looking for a locum to replace Simon and accepted his offer to come to Wandin Valley in May 1986.

She became involved with (and eventually engaged to) Peter Manning, a teacher at Burrigan High. The romance ended when he resigned his teaching position. After Dan Richards died in August 1987, Alex took care of his daughter, Penny. She became involved with Terence and they were married in March 1988. She was devastated by the death of their baby girl, Laura, and vowed to never have children. Her socialist leanings were already evident when she went to Ethiopia while in Uni but she now began to think more and more about helping the underprivileged. She got an offer in March 1989 to work for 3 months at a remote Aborginial settlement in the Northern Territory and went up there to see how it would work out. Terence came to visit periodically but it was difficult. Alex was very good at working with minimal supplies under rough conditions and really loved her job. Terence, on the other hand, was really good at working with surgical tools in a "civilized" setting. They ultimately decided that it wouldn't be fair for either of them to sacrifice what they were good at just to be together so, in spite of the fact that they still loved one another and it was very painful, Alex decided to remain where she was and Terence returned to Wandin Valley alone. They were divorced some time later.

Alex returned to Wandin Valley briefly in 1993, looking very tired and beat. She was burnt out and disillusioned by the futility of treating the Aborigines under the conditions up north. She seemed to have some idea of getting back together with Terence but backed off when she realized that Terence and Rosemary were a couple. She ultimately decided to enter the political arena, to fight for better conditions for the Aborigines.